Washington (CNN) - Having already aired advertisements describing what he'd do on "Day 1" in the White House, Mitt Romney explained on Wednesday what he'd do over another 99 days.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also used his address to business chiefs to prebut President Barack Obama's economic speech in Ohio on Thursday. Romney will campaign in Ohio the same day.- Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker

"[The president] said, as you know, just a few days ago, that the private sector is doing fine," Romney said. "But the incredulity that came screaming back from the American people has caused him, I think, to re-think that. And I think you're going to see him change course when he speaks tomorrow."

Romney continued: "And where he will acknowledge that it isn't going so well and he'll be asking for four more years...My own view is that he will speak eloquently, but the words are cheap."

Shooting back, Team Obama accused Romney of making a "dishonest claim" about the president's record and "failed to offer any new ideas of his own" on improving the economy.

Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, argued Romney would push "budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans" and let "Wall Street write its own rules–the same policies that crashed the economy and devastated the middle class in the first place."

"America can't afford Romney economics," she said in a statement.

Romney was the guest of the Business Roundtable's quarterly meeting. The group, an association of CEOs of major corporations, hosted President Obama in March.

Over 100 CEOs attended to hear Romney. Reporters were allowed into the session for the candidate's opening remarks, which lasted roughly 20 minutes. Afterwards, all members of the media were asked to leave so that Romney and the business leaders could privately interact. The Business Roundtable's meetings are typically closed to the press.

In addition to pre-butting the president's speech, Romney laid out what he'd do in the first 100 days of a Romney administration. Earlier Wednesday, the campaign released a graphic on "How a Romney Presidency Would be Different."

"I will in my first 100 days take action to eliminate government programs, to send a lot of government programs back to states where I limit the rate of growth at inflation, and to cut back the number of federal employees through attrition," Romney said. "And by the way, to link the pay of government workers with the pay that exists in the private sector. And those things save about $500 billion a year by my fourth year in office, if I am lucky enough to be elected, and get us to a balanced budget within eight to 10 years."

Also on Romney's to-do list: approving the controversial Keystone pipeline, slashing non-security discretionary government spending, reducing the number of government regulations and repealing 'Obamacare.'

On that issue, Romney repeated a new line of attack against the president – a slam that's being cited as taking the president's words out of context.

"The other day, when he was asked, 'Do you understand that particular small businesses [are] having a hard time because of Obamacare?' He said he didn't know – he hadn't heard that small businesses were affected by Obamacare, negatively," Romney told the CEOs, referring to the president.

It turns out, that's not exactly what the president said.

During a Tuesday interview with a local television from Iowa, the president was asked about the impact of the nation's health reform law on small businesses.

The interviewer told the president that an Iowa company said it had to close and move jobs to Wisconsin, as a "direct result of the health care reform that you initiated, that Congress passed."

"How do you react to that?" the reporter asked.

The president responded: "That would be kind of hard to explain. Because the only folks that have been impacted in terms of the health care bill are insurance companies who are required to make sure that they're providing preventive care, or they're not dropping your coverage when you get sick. And so, this particular company probably wouldn't have been impacted by that."

Meanwhile, Romney also told the business leaders that the government often treats them as if they're adversaries – instead of friends.

"Government has to be the partner, the friend, the ally, the supporter of enterprise not the enemy," Romney said. "Too often, you find yourself facing a government that looks at you like you are the bad guys. And if you are hiring people and employing people and paying taxes you are the good guys. I want you to do well."

soundoff(231 Responses)

judith

Romney will deregulate everything so the rich masters of the financial universe like himself will get even richer while 99% are permanently screwed. That's Romney's plan in a nutshell. No thank you Mittens!

June 14, 2012 12:26 pm at 12:26 pm |

Tea Party

Private sector is doing so bad that they were only able to donate billions to SuperPacs...Haha....Private sector is fleecing America.

June 14, 2012 12:26 pm at 12:26 pm |

Obama 2012 - BEND Forward America, take another 4 long years of FAILURE

OK, so Obama ran for President in 2008 knowing full well what he was getting into. He's been blaming George Bush and the Republicans for over 5 years now. The American people elected him and the Democrats TO FIX THE PROBLEMS in 2008, handing them total control of the Whitehouse, House and Senate. And what did they do???

Borrow and spend nearly a TRILLION dollars to spend on creating union make work jobs and give money to states to maintain their bloated union staffing levels. Promising it would keep unemployment below 8%. the REAL RESULT was unemployment skyrocketing to ober 10% and it has NEVER been below 8% since. STIMULUS = FAILURE.

Then immediately started on the left's Holy Grail of a governemnt takeover of the healthcare system in the USA. They used every trick in the book, lies, bribery, deceit, closed door meetings, to get it hammered through and jammed down our throats without ANYBODY being able to read and know what it was all about. For this the American people rewarded the Democrats with a record DEFEAT in 2010. It was the ONLY way to stop the Democrats from spending the country into bankruptcy and destroying the healtcare system in the process. Now we have learned healthcare costs continue to skyrocket, not fall as claimed, the costs will be double or triple what was claimed, many of the "savings" aren't possible and have been shelved. In short, Obamacare has been a disaster even before taking full affect. Obamacare = MASSIVE FAILURE.

Four more years of this massive failure and the country will not survive. The American people KNOW THIS. They will speak again in 2012 and save the country rom the leftists that are hell bent on bankrupting it and destroying it under unsustainable massive entitlements.

June 14, 2012 12:27 pm at 12:27 pm |

Pam from Iowa

and the rich will get richer....the poor will get poorer.....
If any one man is out of touch with mainstream America, it is Mitt Romney!!!!

June 14, 2012 12:27 pm at 12:27 pm |

Claudia, Houston, Tx

Romney is no more than the "talking head of Paul Ryan and his budget". Remember the GOP really wanted Paul Ryan for President but his budget plan got a negative from the American people so they just changed the "head" but not the plan; Paul Ryan's budget made him the GOP's "rising star" and don't you forget it. FACT.

June 14, 2012 12:28 pm at 12:28 pm |

Pam from Iowa

Where can I find out how many millions have been donated to Mitt Romney from insurance companies eager to repeal Obamacare so they can deny you coverage for pre-existing conditions?
It cuts into their profits!!

June 14, 2012 12:29 pm at 12:29 pm |

Rudy NYC

Out Of Touch with reality wrote:

the name states it for obama, OUT OF TOUCH, socialism will not work and a revolution is coming,
-----------------
I find it curious that everything the right wing stands for, is also what communists and socialsts desire. Both want strong militaries, powerful enough to impose their will on other countries. Both dislike unions and workers organizing to claim basic rights.

Ironically though, one group prefers a society where government runs the business, while our friends on the right wing prefer a society where businesses run the government. From the average Joe's perspective, both societies are nearly identical.

June 14, 2012 12:29 pm at 12:29 pm |

Romney is not My Hero

@Woman in California: This is Willard's plan for the economy: A BLANK PIECE OF PAPER.

Yes, and a blank mind to go along with it!

OBAMA 2012!

June 14, 2012 12:29 pm at 12:29 pm |

ThinkAgain

@Ronb: "LOL. REPUBLICANS cost you 40% of your net worth and you blame Obama?!?! Seriously?? Now you know why REPUBLICANS are against public education – you buy everything they sell when you're ignorant to the facts!"

Terribly sad, terribly true! And now, thanks to Citizens United, billionaires are filling the pockets with money in an attempt to flood the airwaves with lies and fear to get folks to vote against their own self-interest.

Seriously, folks, do you want the likes of the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson writing multi-million-dollar checks to steal our elections? Adelson, who previously backed Newt Gingrich, airing ads against Mittens, is now supporting Mittens – he just gave a SuperPAC backing Mittens $10 million and has said he is willing to spend $100 million to get Mittens elected (Adelson said his contributions would be "limitless").

Do you really think this casino billionaire – Adelson – has the best interest of our nation at heart? A man who's made his fortune in taking suckers' money at the crap tables?

Obama/Biden 2012 = The only sane choice

June 14, 2012 12:30 pm at 12:30 pm |

Marie MD

@demwit, the President said that but hen yiu have the scotus of the US allowing corporations, the new race of people, give tons of money to the bishop then you have to do the same.

June 14, 2012 12:32 pm at 12:32 pm |

fedup fed

OK. I wonder what Wall St people make who manage hundreds of millions of dollars? I bet it's more than what I make as a fed. So if it turns out to be $300,000 per year, according to Romney, I should get a big pay raise.

June 14, 2012 12:39 pm at 12:39 pm |

kim

Romney is merely the puppet of the Koch brothers, Grover Norquist, and Mitch McConnell. He couldn't come up with an original thought if his life depended on it. How out of touch is he? He has a horse competing in the Olympics, and you can bet your last dollar that the horse cost more than what 90% of Americans have in their retirement funds, and it's just a toy for him.

June 14, 2012 12:40 pm at 12:40 pm |

KM

There is a time and a place for regulation. Where consumers are threatened by unsafe products, and unscrupulous practices regulation is not necessarily a bad thing. Tne problem with the current administration is that it has set about demonizing businesses and creating mountains of paperwork that both hamstring businesses taht desire to expand and discouraging entrepreneurs from starting new businesses. Obama has planted the seeds of his own destruction. I would fully expect him to now attempt to backpeddle from his current stance.

June 14, 2012 12:51 pm at 12:51 pm |

Tony

Romney's words are worthless. He changes his mind on everything. No one believes him, not even Republicans

June 14, 2012 12:54 pm at 12:54 pm |

Janer52

@bend forward. i don't like the constant blaming of Bush either even tho i think there is still culpability there. get over it. but i will say that i do not believe that obama knew what he was getting himself in to; no one does (because it's bigger than any of us can understand) before they are in the oval office. and i honestly do not believe that john mccain would have made a difference either. the hole we have dug will take at least a decade to get out of and will take sacrifice. i don't see one politician that is willing to stand up and say WE CAN'T DO WHAT WE USED TO DO. not obama and certainly not romney.

June 14, 2012 12:57 pm at 12:57 pm |

Change

Four long, debt ridden, high unemployment years is more than enough. Time to send the community organizer back to Chicago

June 14, 2012 12:58 pm at 12:58 pm |

sassysticks53

"OK, so Obama ran for President in 2008 knowing full well what he was getting into. He's been blaming George Bush and the Republicans for over 5 years now."

LOL! Over two thirds of Americans still blame George Bush and rightly so. You're going to have to deal with it because nothing you say will change that opinion.

June 14, 2012 01:01 pm at 1:01 pm |

Richard T.

Lies and flip-flop etch-a-sketch statement are the Romney and GOP tools for domination and plutocracy + right-wing religious social policy. Damn them!

Turn left at the next election,

June 14, 2012 01:02 pm at 1:02 pm |

larry

Yes, Bush did start this mess, but Obama,s failed policies are doing nothing to help, he never says anything new, all he wants to do is spend more of our money, how would that work if we did the same, its simple, we,d just get deeper in debt, and that's what,s happening, its time for a change

June 14, 2012 01:03 pm at 1:03 pm |

John

Romney's take is that everything, EXCEPT HIM, is Cheap...........he can afford to pay someone to make sure he is not cheap, 2 Cadillacs, 2 vacation homes, ............I guess it depends on your definition of cheap.......In my mind, if he wins the presidency, it will be a Cheap Shot on the entire American electorate.

June 14, 2012 01:07 pm at 1:07 pm |

SPQR

I wouldn't trust a word that comes out Mitt Romney's mouth even if his tongue was notarized.

June 14, 2012 01:10 pm at 1:10 pm |

The GOP needs to pack up and leave

Every time someone like Mittens speaks, it proves the theory that there are no intelligent people involved with the GOP.

Granted, we knew that every time Palin spoke, but Mittens reinforces the fact.

June 14, 2012 01:13 pm at 1:13 pm |

FLIndpendent

@Madeline – If you think Mitt is the answer to your problems I'm afraid you're very misguided. It seems like you think everyone making $45,000+ is a union worker and that is simply not the case as the number of union workers is very minimal compared to the entire workforce. Mittens is only interested in helping the rich and if you can't see then I'm afraid there's no hope for you. At least President Obama is trying to level the playing field so everyone gets an opportunity at the Golden Goose. Go ahead and vote against your best interest – sad for all the rest of us WORKING middle class!

June 14, 2012 01:19 pm at 1:19 pm |

Rudy NYC

... BEND wrote

OK, so Obama ran for President in 2008 knowing full well what he was getting into. He's been blaming George Bush and the Republicans for over 5 years now.
-----------–
That is not true and you know it. You seem to forget that the economy tanked *after* the party conventions. Yes, we were in a recession during much of the campaigns because it began in Dec. 2007, a month before primary season. The big issues in the campaigns were unpaid for wars, unpaid for tax cuts, and unpaid for Medicare Drug Programs that basically give money to private companies.

Those were the issues throughout the 2008 primaries, right through to the conventions. It was not until after the conventions that Wall Street dropped 777 points and the banks asked for bailouts. That was September. That's when McCain declared the economy as "robust" or some other positive adjective. The actual bailout votes failed on a Tuesday, but were finally passed on Friday, Oct. 2, 2008 with essentially the same language.

The most significant difference was which fiscal year it would be atttached to, 2008 or 2009. Seeing how we already had over a $700 billion deficit, adding another $700 billion frion tghe bailout made nearly $1.5 trillion. That is the size of the deficit from the final year of GWB, $1.5 trillion. Which is a big difference from the $300 billion surplus that he started with. So far, that FY2009 figure stands as the single year record.

June 14, 2012 01:19 pm at 1:19 pm |

Patriot

Yeah, Mitt Romeny only talk about money. He thinks Obama's word is cheap, the man with car elevators in his mansions. The Vulture who kills small businesses and jobs. The Perpetual LIER.